Geode Capital Management LLC Cuts Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Geode Capital Management trimmed its Fortinet stake by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 205,862 shares and ending with 16.98 million shares valued at about $1.35 billion.
• Insider selling included CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie, who both sold shares under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans to cover tax withholding tied to equity awards. Over the last three months, insiders sold 153,848 shares worth about $19.4 million.
• Fortinet beat quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.82 on revenue of $1.85 billion, and raised guidance for Q2 and FY 2026. Analysts remain mixed overall, with a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $102.69.

Geode Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,975,909 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 205,862 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.28% of Fortinet worth $1,345,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $585,000. HUB Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 29.1% in the 2nd quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $560,000 after purchasing an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,136,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 27.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 144,989 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $15,328,000 after purchasing an additional 31,202 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 5,355 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total transaction of $476,059.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,978,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,709,744,555.60. This trade represents a 0.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 2,478 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total transaction of $220,269.42. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,927,517 shares of the company's stock, valued at $882,456,986.13. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last three months, insiders sold 153,848 shares of company stock worth $19,446,115. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $125.00 price target (up from $100.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial set a $120.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Fortinet from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $125.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $102.69.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $129.70 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $95.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.26. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $134.91. The company has a market capitalization of $95.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.58 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc NASDAQ: FTNT is a multinational cybersecurity company that develops and delivers integrated security solutions for enterprise, service provider and government customers worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was co‑founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie. Ken Xie serves as chairman and chief executive officer, and the company operates through a global sales, channel and services organization to support customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia‑Pacific.

Fortinet's product portfolio centers on network security appliances and software, with its FortiGate next‑generation firewalls and the FortiOS operating system forming a core platform.

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